Dip in temperature reduces power demand in Telangana

On Tuesday, the power demand stood at 192 million units in Telangana, while it was over 230 million units last week

Hyderabad: The power demand in the State has seen a considerable decline during the last two days following rainfall across the State due to Cyclone Michaung, which hit the Southern coast of Andhra Pradesh. On Tuesday, the power demand stood at 192 million units in the State, while it was over 230 million units last week.

According to power officials, as of now there is no power shortage in the State as the power demand is very less in both domestic and agriculture sectors due to weather conditions. The Discoms are managing to supply electricity to all the sectors from its own sources and Central Generating Stations. However, once the sowing for the Yasangi picks up in the second week of December, it is likely to go up substantially in the agriculture sector.

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In the last one week the average power demand in the State stood at 192 million units, which is likely to go up once the sowing picks up and could touch over 250 mu. In fact, during January and February, it is likely to touch 300 mu.

On the whole, the peak demand touched 10,264 mega watts on Monday. This is likely to cross 15,000 MW in March next. The State had recorded a peak power demand of 15,497 MW on March 30 this year.

Officials said once the new government starts implementing the Gruha Jyothi scheme, which promises to provide free electricity, up to 200 units, to over 1.05 crore consumers in the State, it would have to purchase power from the Indian Energy Exchange Limited (IEX) to meet the demand. The power utilities have been purchasing power on a daily basis during summer and agriculture activities seasons. In September, the discoms spent about Rs.1,000 crore to meet the power demand.

Experts in the power sector estimate that the State government will have to provide a subsidy of over Rs.3,000 crore annually to implement the Congress party’s manifesto promise of providing free electricity to homes. Every year the State government provides more than Rs.11,000 crore as subsidy to the Discoms to implement free power to agriculture and certain communities and with the implementation of Gruha Jyothi scheme, the subsidy is likely to touch Rs.15,000 crore.

With over 80 percent of the households consuming less than 200 units in the State, there will be additional burden on the government as all those who were paying power bills will stop after the scheme is implemented.

According to officials, the current power generation capacity of the State stood at 18,453 MW.